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Longhorn helmet logo made its debut 50 years ago

Longhorn helmet logo made its debut 50 years ago

Rooster Andrews, who passed away three years ago, is remembered for many things. The 4-foot-11-inch Andrews was dubbed the All-American Waterboy for his drop-kicking skills at Texas, and on fake kicks, he even threw a pair of touchdown passes to his college roommate and buddy, Bobby Layne.

Yet it was in his professional career, as a sporting goods store owner, that Andrews made his most lasting contribution to UT tradition: developing the logo on the football helmet that has become synonymous with the team and the school.

The Longhorn helmet logo made its debut 50 years ago, in a 1961 season that almost climaxed with the school's first national championship in football.

Back in '61, Texas coach Darrell Royal was heading into his fifth season in Austin . The Longhorns were coming off a 7-3-1 campaign that had been salvaged by a string of four straight wins followed by a 3-3 tie against a Bear Bryant-led Alabama team anchored by linebacker Lee Roy Jordan.

In an effort to pump up the Longhorns' scoring output and to make better use of scatback James Saxton, Royal was working on a new offense, which would be dubbed the Flip-Flop. But Royal apparently was concerned about other team matters as well.

One night he stopped by a neighbor's house. At the time, Royal's family lived on Belmont Parkway, and Andrews was nearby on Oakhurst Avenue.

"Darrell was getting some complaints about the uniforms being too plain. He said, 'Gosh, what can I do to doll it up,'" said Lisa Ard, Andrews' daughter, who was not yet born at the time but has discussed the story with family members.

Back then, the Longhorns' helmets were white with orange numerals on the side and a thin orange stripe down the center.

Andrews told Royal he had an idea and would work on it that night. Andrews found a Longhorn head in a book, traced it and colored it in with crayon.

The next morning Royal swung by, took a look and decided the logo would look just dandy on Texas' helmets. It took Andrews a while, but he was able to find a manufacturer to produce the decals.

"They had to order a gazillion of them because they were a special order," Ard said.

The Longhorn logos were placed under the players' numerals on the side of the game helmets.

"We really liked it. We thought it was neat," recalled David McWilliams, who was a sophomore on the '61 Texas team. McWilliams, an associate athletic director at UT, said, "They were decals. If you hit anybody, they'd get torn off."

Between games, damaged Longhorn logos were dutifully peeled off and replaced with new ones by team managers. The logos appeared to work like lucky charms.

Texas opened the season by thumping California 28-3 and proceeded to reel off a 10-1 season, marred only by a stunning loss to Texas Christian. The Longhorns finished third in the final Associated Press poll, which was topped by Alabama.

The Texas players sported the Longhorn decals when they claimed the national championship in 1963, and UT continues to have Longhorn silhouettes on helmets to day.

Andrews, however, wasn't done making fashion statements for Texas.

A year later, Royal and Andrews collaborated on another important piece of Texas history, changing the color of Texas' uniforms to burnt orange. At that time, Texas was wearing a bright — or University of Tennessee — orange.

Royal preferred something darker, closer to the color of the football, the way the practice uniforms looked when they were stained with sweat after a hot, hard practice.

Andrews, however, had trouble explaining that color to manufacturers.

Then Andrews came up with the idea of soaking a jersey in water overnight in a bucket, and showing that to a manufacturer, who then understood what Andrews had been talking about.

Now the University of Texas makes as much in royalties from the sale of merchandise as any university in the country — about $10 million a year.

And the Longhorn has become one of the most recognizable logos not only in college athletics, but in the world of sports.